I think the rear cockpit makes this boat appear similar to the Arrival design. Underneath however, they appear to me very different in philosophy. I have heard reports of how the Arrival sails in different conditions, but I cannot personally confirm this.

As an all round performing boat, the Pikanto is still hard to beat. I believe it changed, and influenced IOM design, much like the TS-2 did in the 90's.

I think hull shape has an effect on boatspeed, but I believe sails, and rig performance are of equal importance. There is a lot of rig development here in Australia, especially trying to optimize the lightweight 11mm black masts for gust response.

I hope we have sailing in all 3 rigs at West Kirby, so we can have an idea of how different boats perform.

Patrick,Can you explain to us further on how the Pikanto has influenced recent iom design more than say, Lintel or Scharmer? By gust response you mean shorter spreader length and lower sidestays opposed to Bantock style?

I feel the Pikanto brought together the best features from different boats into a very competitive package across all wind speeds. Just look at the number of similar boats that have appeared since ( the Arrival is one), and recent boats on this blog alone.

The Britpop, is another game changing boat as well.The Lintel is great in big wind and waves, but struggles in the light winds. The Scharmer is the opposite. It is well regarded as the fastest flat water boat out there, but seems to suffer in waves. The Britpop, I feel takes the Scharmer concept, and optimises it for heavy winds, including the chines from the Lintel etc.

by gust response, not only short spreaders and low shrouds, but also the amount of prebend, and where it is distributed. People are experimenting in how much the mainsail depowers in relation to the jib, where sail design comes into it too.

I'm fortunate that people like Brad Gibson, and here in OZ, Craig Smith, Brad Gibson, Jeff Byerley, Mark Paterson, Lincoln McDowall etc, have been generous enough to chat to me about different aspects of rig design and tuning.